For those wondering on my profile, I still plan on doing the remake to The Gamer: Rockbear. I just felt like trying something new as well. As I said with the remake for The Gamer: Rockbear, try not to expect too constant of releases. I make them on a whim, and since I've been sick while in college with other personal issues, I haven't had much drive to write. This story was also posted on spacebattles about two weeks ago because of my original fascination with The Games We Play.

Chapter 1: Grunt Gamer

Sleeping indoors on the floor has restored 80% of HP and MP

Damon slowly rose from his sleeping position, grimacing as the wet blanket over him fell off. He scratched his head, pushing the straight, crimson hair out of his sight. "Another day in hell," he spoke with a sneer. Standing up, he prepared himself to begin today's work, steadying himself as he felt the ship he was on hit a large wave. He stretched, his long but skinny body making slight groaning noises.

One week ago, the crew he was with had been caught in a storm. Everyone was running around, attempting to keep the ship steady and safe. However, Damon had never been taught more than basic grunt work, so he only stood to the side, watching as the storm got stronger. At one point, he had seen a part of the storm slowly open up. But what he saw wasn't the sky. Instead, it was a massive gash, alternating between crimson and pitch black. He glanced around, but no one else seemed to have notice the anomaly. Staring at it, he saw a gray flash heading straight towards him. Before he could react, it hit him, disappearing within his body. Following that, his sight went black and he slumped down, unconscious.

When he awoke, he had this ability. Not only that, he had vague memories that simply weren't his. "Was that a soul?" he wondered. Continuing on with his day, going about his cleaning tasks and manual labor, he gained more and more information about what his new ability could do. He could see levels above people's heads. He could level up himself, gaining new strength immediately. He even had an inventory to store things in, along with skills. He could treat anything as if it was a game…

But what was a video game? He had developed strong memories which depicted him as fighting flying creatures that breathe fire, controlling the elements and bringing down huge swords down upon enemies, among many other things. He had played normal games as a child with the other villagers and had believed himself to have a vivid imagination, but the technology that he was seeing in his mind was far more advanced than anything he had seen in his life. However, that was nearly all he had retained from whatever entered him. Just that knowledge.

Knowing all about games gave him a new outlook on life, though. Whatever this power he gained was, he knew it would drastically change his fate. He could be free from this grunt work that was forced on him since childhood.

Thinking back to his past made Damon grimace. See, his past wasn't something he enjoyed. He grew up loving everyone in his village, including his parents. However, his family was terribly poor, but he didn't know how to help at such a young age. At the age of seven, his parents had decided how he could help without his knowledge. He was sold into slavery. From then on, his life went straight to hell. He was forced to leave the village he had come to love. With his departure, the love he once held for his parents disappeared, replaced with utter hatred.

Not long after, he found himself with this crew, led by a pirate named Wallace "One Eyed Wally" Dawn. He was a man with little brain but high brawn. That's all he needed though to put those he bought from slavery under his control, becoming a captain of a pirate ship. Damon had hoped that he would be treated well, but alas, fate wasn't so kind. He was never taught anything of use, only cleaning up messes from other members. His body was small, so he wasn't even taught to fight. In the ten years that he's been here, his life had been put in jeopardy more times than he could count, only surviving through hiding behind other crew members. He was forced to kill someone at age eleven, though. He had been caught by an enemy and was able to stab him in the throat before the enemy had been able to do anything else with him.

"Damon! Stop dazing off, there's plenty of shit to clean!" yelled out another crew member nearby. Damon sighed, quickly throwing on some clothes, one of the only two sets he had. He began sweeping the floor. Not long after, a blue screen popped up. Sweeping has leveled up! He shook his head, quickly dismissing the screen. "Just one of the many useless skills I've gained so far," Damon muttered. He had gained skills for sweeping, laundry cleaning, mopping, and scrubbing. The only good thing about them was that it made his daily tasks quicker. Speaking of those daily tasks, they had actually become Daily Quests, offering a small amount of experience. However, it was a ridiculously small amount of experience, he had yet to even level up, even though he was only level one.

That fact also made him a little sad. There was only one other member at level one. All the others were at least level two, with many at four. The captain was level ten. Knowing that he was far outclassed by everyone around him, he didn't want to try escaping as he was now. However, the thing he needed most was a way to get stronger.

That thought led him to walking outside to one of his only friends after he had finished his chores. "Hey, Misuke!" Damon called out to him, a small smile on his face. A short but bulky teenager turned around, glancing at Damon. With short black hair, wearing a poor set of light armor, Misuke didn't look like much.

Misuke D. Terraform LV 4

"Hey, what's up?" Misuke replied, setting down a barrel he had been carrying.

"Um, I was wondering if you could help me with something. Do you think you could get me a sword?" Damon glanced around surreptitiously to make sure no one was paying too much attention. "I need to practice." He leaned in a bit closer. "For what we talked about."

Misuke was taken back by that. "So soon? There's no way we're ready."

Damon waved him off quickly. "No, no, don't misunderstand me. That's just the purpose behind it. I don't think I'll be ready for a bit. Until then, both of us need to develop as much as we can."

Shifting his feet, Misuke thought for a second. "Yeah, I can do that. I have a spare from one of the enemies that attacked me last time we boarded another pirate ship. Gimme just a minute." Jogging off, Misuke quickly disappeared into the interior of the ship. Damon sat down on the barrel that Misuke had been carrying, watching as crew members passed by him, with the occasional member glancing back at him and sneering.

After Damon had gained his ability, he had felt a much stronger urgency to escape from Wallace's ship and go out onto his own. He confided these thoughts with Misuke, who after sitting in silence for a bit had agreed to help. However, to convince Misuke, he had to explain his new power. That was a bit of work, as he didn't have a full understanding of it himself. But after getting through that, they started to develop a plan. They were going to display their power once it had manifested. They were going to start a mutiny. It wasn't the most solid plan, since they didn't know how long it would take for Damon to grow in strength, but there wasn't much else they could do. Starting as slaves, Wallace didn't take it well when he discovered crew members trying to escape. They were commonly chased down to the full extent of the crew and tortured to death as an example.

Damon sized up some of the nearby crew members, looking at their levels and trying to guess what their strengths were. "He's obviously stronger than others, but if I had to guess what his weakness was, it'd probably be his speed and intelligence. From what I've seen, he's definitely not bright," he thought. Suddenly a pop up appeared. Through a special action, a new skill was created. [Observe]

"Oh?" Damon mused. "Observe."

Glenn Penamere LV 4

VIT: 22
STR: 28
DEX: 5
INT: 5
WIS: 7
LUK: 8

Surprise surfaced on Damon's face. "That's ridiculously convenient." The first useful skill has finally emerged. And with it only being level one, it already showed where the person's stats were allocated. As Damon waited for Misuke, he spammed Observe on everything nearby.

In a short amount of time, Misuke came back into Damon's view. "Here you go, man. Hopefully this'll do. It's not the best of quality, but it's a sword at least." He extended out his hand which held a plain sword in a gray scabbard. Damon quickly observed it as it came into his hand.

Iron Sword ATK: 3

"Yeah, it'll work, thank you." Damon smiled, his grip tightening on the sword. "I'll probably just use it for training anyways. Once I improve, I can get something better of my own."

After Misuke went back to his work, Damon returned to his small cabin. There wasn't much room to spare, but he pulled out the sword, staring at the blade for a moment. "Well, don't fail me now, weird ass ability."

And thus he began swinging his sword wildly, with no aspect of training within his style.

Damon Grimm LV 1 EXP: 28.1%

VIT: 8
STR: 7
DEX: 16
INT: 15
WIS: 12
LUK: 3

Money: 100 Berries